Richie Farmer: Even Dumber Than He Is Corrupt

Corrupt or stupid? With former Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ritchie Farmer, it's hard to tell. Filling your agency with idiot friends holding no-show jobs is more corrupt than stupid, but giving some of those jobs to extramarital girlfriends who can't keep their mouths shut is more stupid than corrupt.

This, however, is not just stupid, but a level of stupid that overwhelms even the monster levels of corruption.

From the Courier:

Former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer applied for unemployment benefits after his term of office ended Jan. 1, The Courier-Journal has learned.

SNIP

As agriculture commissioner, a position he held eight years, Farmer earned $110,346 when his term ended. But Kentucky unemployment compensation law lists “a public elected official” among the types of employment not eligible for benefits.

And state officials said they could not remember a previous instance when an elected state official had applied for unemployment benefits.

Farmer did not return numerous phone messages seeking comment on this story.

Crit Luallen, whose two terms as state auditor also ended Jan. 1, said it never occurred to her to apply for unemployment.

“That law is meant to serve people who are terminated from their employment by their employer …” Luallen said.

And elected official, Luallen said, “takes the job for a limited and expected amount of time. You couldn’t possibly claim that it was circumstances beyond your control that caused you to end up in that situation.”

After the election, we all thought Ritchie would "retire" into some nice cushy seven-figure no-work "job" with some of his Big Coal or Big Ag pals. Neither of those corporate criminals are squeamish about corruption.

But this level of stupid may make Ritchie toxic even with them.